


My charming, dear, distant one.

by mamimi (hyemiyah)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 07:18:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6414223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyemiyah/pseuds/mamimi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tobio repeats the name in his head, 'Tsukishima Kei', and frowns at how pretty is sounds. Like the soft touch of someone you love—your mother or your grandmother—or the clouds moving gently to reveal the moon when it's still light out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My charming, dear, distant one.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vagarius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vagarius/gifts).



> dear vagarius,  
> thank you for allowing me to make my haikyuu! debut.  
> I sincerely hope this suits your fancy and that you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> thank you to the loveliest, sweetest yam for helping me beta-ing at the last minute.  
> and thank you alicia, for your encouragement and support. always.

 

 

 

"I think your name suits you," Hinata says. They're walking together after practice. The sun set a while ago, and even though the day has been warm and humid. It’s chilly now that it's dark and the moon is up. Tobio snuggles himself down into his sweatshirt. Summer has come and gone; time sure flies by.

"Kageyama Tobio," Hinata continues. He makes a weird face as he says his name, pronouncing the syllables one by one. "Ka-ge-ya-ma To-bi-o," he repeats once more, slower and louder this time. His mouth big to let the words out. He looks pensive for a few seconds, then adds, "Very... rectangular." He actually makes a rectangle with his hands. The idiot.

"Look who's talking," Tobio retorts, ignoring how foreign his first name sounds in Hinata's voice. "Hinata Shoyo. Such a kid's name."

Hinata frowns at him. "I like my name," he grunts.

A few steps behind them, Yamaguchi laughs quietly. "You two sure get along fine."

"Birds of the same feather flock together," Tsukishima says to no one in particular. Yamaguchi giggles a little next to him.

"What about you, Yamaguchi? What's your first name?"

Tsukishima tsks tsks at this. "You don't even remember his first name despite knowing him for almost a year."

"Shut up, Tsukishima!" Hinata scowls; he turns to Yamaguchi and looks apologetic. "I'm sorry, Yamaguchi."

Yamaguchi has an indescribable look on his face. Most of the time, Tobio has no idea what goes through his mind. Not that he actually cares. He looks at Yamaguchi's face and sees him smiling a feeble smile, he has too many freckles, and his hair is an indescribable colour. Meh, Tobio thinks.

"It's okay," Yamaguchi says, "I'm Tadashi." They stay silent for a while, except for Hinata who repeats Yamaguchi's name again and again like a mantra. Probably to remember it the next time Tsukishima makes fun of him. Then, like an afterthought, Yamaguchi adds, "And Tsukki is Kei."

Tobio knew that. Still, Tsukishima's first name sounds both soft and wrong in Yamaguchi's voice. Tobio repeats the name in his head, 'Tsukishima Kei', and frowns at how pretty is sounds. Like the soft touch of someone you love—your mother or your grandmother—or the clouds moving gently to reveal the moon when it's still light out.

"Tsukishima Kei," Hinata says loudly, "Wow, that's a cool name. It suits you, Tsu-ki-shi-ma Kei." He's doing it again, saying each syllable slowly.

Tsukishima doesn't say anything, he just keeps walking, seemingly unbothered by Hinata's opinion. But he has _that look_ on his face. The look he has whenever he does something good—or at least somewhat decent—and Sugawara-san compliments him.

Tobio scowls; he doesn't like _that look_ . He doesn't like Sugawara-san complimenting his teammates. Sugawara-san is supposed to be _his_ senpai, but he has never complimented Tobio the same way he compliments the rest of the team. Especially during a game. And, sure, Tobio knows they both play the same position, so they can't really be in the court at the same time, but he has always held Sugawara-san high. He used to admire Oikawa-san, but he turned out to be a sadistic jerk. Sugawara-san, on the other hand, had looked like a nobody when he first met him, but Tobio has learnt that strength doesn't necessarily come from being called a great king. Sugawara-san is greater than Oikawa-san, in Tobio's book of setter senpais. He has no idea how some of the first years—Hinata on a few rare occasions, mostly after he hangs out with Tanaka-san and Nishinoya-san for a while—can call him Suga-san so casually when he'll always he Su-ga-wa-ra-san to him.

"Oi, rectangular," Tobio hears Tsukishima say and stops his mental rant. "Aren't you coming?"

"Where?" Now that he notices, Yamaguchi and Hinata are gone. "Where are the others?"

"They're already inside the shop, you're not buying anything?"

It's odd for Tsukishima to be talking this much without insulting him or Hinata. And this new found 'niceness'—if Tobio can call it that—makes him wonder how his first name would sound in Tsukishima's voice. If it'd carry sarcasm and mock, the way it does when Oikawa-san says it. _'Tobio~chan~'_

"No, I'm good," this is a lie. Tobio feels a hole in his stomach and he knows that soon it will be growling from hunger. But the moon is up and Tsukishima is standing next to him. Tobio can hear the music faintly coming out of Tsukishima's big headphones, and maybe the hunger is making him hallucinate because out of the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees Tsukishima move an inch closer so that Tobio can listen to the music better.

Tobio searches desperately in his mind for something to say. Preferably something that doesn't involve volleyball. He remembers Tsukishima saying that 'it was just a club', and Tobio doesn't want to bore him because he knows that'll only make Tsukishima mock him.

"Uhm," he says, then clears his throat when his voice comes out louder than he expected. But Tsukishima is looking at the shop's door; as if he were mentally commanding Hinata and Yamaguchi to hurry up so they can go home already. "So how did you learn to block?" Tobio presses and sighs inwardly; he wasn't supposed to ask anything volleyball related. Ennoshita-san must be right, he may be a volleyball idiot after all.

Tsukishima's eyes are still fixed on the shop's door. "Bokuto-san and Kuroo-san made me," a pause. "It's not like I _wanted_ to learn." He makes a face as he mentions the weird captains' names, but he doesn't look like when he's trying to help him and Hinata study and no matter what they do, they can't get the right answer. He looks more like when someone tells him something nice and he pretends he's not pleased. Tobio knows better, or at least he knows that Tsukishima never does anything lame so he must've at least been a bit interested. He also knows that Tsukishima will never admit he enjoyed the time he spent practising in Tokyo with those weird captains. Tobio pauses at this thought occurs to him; why does he know this? When did he start paying attention to Tsukishima's mood or face?

Just then, Tsukishima looks at him and smirks. Tobio gasps unconsciously, but he's not sure if he does it because he imagines what comes next—Tsukishima will say something to humiliate him—or if he's gasping because he can see the moon reflecting in Tsukishima's eyes through his glasses. They're a weird colour, Tobio has never really realised before but they make him think of honey. Which is ironic because Tsukishima is anything but sweet.

"Hey, remember that time you blocked one of Johzenji's spikers with your face?" He says then, the smirk still in his face.

Tobio feels his face scrunch up, "No, I don't." Another lie. Tobio remembers that time perfectly.

"You don't?" Tsukishima laughs as if he were remembering Tobio's nosebleed, relishing at how funny it was. Tobio didn't think it was funny _at all_. "You insisted you weren't bleeding when it was so obvious." Tsukishima pauses and laughs some more, he has his arms around his waist, probably in pain from laughing so hard.

Tobio rejoices at witnessing Tsukishima hurting, but then he remembers the reason why he is in pain and his face scrunches up again. "You were bleeding so bad, your jersey was covered in blood. Daichi-san was so annoyed by your blatant lie." Tsukishima takes his glasses out to wipe the tears rom his eye and Tobio wonders how blind Tsukishima is, if he'd notice Tobio's punch if he were to hit him right now. "Seriously, what made you think you could get away with that lie?"

In all honesty, Tobio wasn't really thinking. He didn't really realise he was bleeding even though he covered his nose with his hand. He just thought he had a runny nose or something. He had jump to stop the attack out of sheer impulse. And now he watches miserably as Tsukishima regains his composure, and wonders why is it that everywhere he goes there is always someone horrible, tormenting Tobio with their cruel ways. He had to put up with Oikawa-san being all selfish and awful for just a year; he'll still have Tsukishima around for two more years.

 

 

 

 

Tobio remembers hearing Yamaguchi talking to Yachi-san about Tsukishima—probably because Yachi-san was still scared of Tsukishima and Yamaguchi was just trying to be reassuring, but most likely because he was using it as an excuse to talk to her.

"He's not really that scary, once you get to know him better," Yamaguchi said. If he was trying to sound encouraging, Tobio thought he was failing.

"Is that so?" Yachi-san replied, sounding completely unconvinced.

And seriously, why was Tobio even listening to this? He still had to practise his toss, which he knew was pretty perfect as it was, but a little more practise never hurt anybody.

"I used to get bullied when I was in middle school, you see," Yamaguchi continued. He was trying to play the victim, Tobio could barf. "Tsukki helped me..." he trailed off then added, "in his own way."

So that's why he puts up with Tsukishima, Tobio thought. Though he had never heard Tsukishima mock or tease Yamaguchi before. At least not the way he did with him and Hinata.

Yachi-san's face changed suddenly. She looked as if she were about to cry. Whether it was out of pity because of Yamaguchi being bullied when he was a kid or out of pride for having a life saviour, an advocate of the defenceless like Tsukishima in their team, Tobio wasn't sure. He didn't even know why he kept listening to this ridiculous conversation.

"That's amazing," she said with stars in her eyes. She sounded like Hinata when he watches a new play being perfectly executed. "To stand up to bullies." She shivered at this, maybe thinking of the bullies at her own middle school. "Bullies are scary. As scary as spikes. Maybe more."

Yamaguchi nodef earnestly next to her. “Tsukishima-kun is amazing!"

Tobio snorted, not convinced at all. How could he be amazing when he was always so nasty to him.

 

 

 

 

"You and Hinata are quite nasty to each other and you're still inseparable," Sugawara-san had said once. It was his turn to tidy up the gym, and Tobio stayed behind to help him.

Tobio had frowned at being told him and Hinata were inseparable. He had suppressed a mean reply just because it was Sugawara-san the one who said this. Though that didn't mean he'd like the comment.

"He's not that bad. Tsukishima I mean," Sugawara-san had pressed. "Maybe you just need to get to know him better. I think he's a good kid. Though it'd be better if he didn't tease people so much." Tobio had noded at this, he had watched the beauty mark under Sugawara-san's left eye move as he picked up a ball and frowned again at the idea of anything that involved Tsukishima.

 

 

 

 

But Tobio always takes Sugawara-san's words at heart, which is why he is _trying_ now. Trying not to punch Tsukishima in the face while he wipes the tears from his eyes. Tears he got from laughing too hard at Tobio's failure as a volleyball player.

Tsukishima puts on his glasses and looks at Tobio with a smirk, "What? Do you remember now?" He says. Tobio is _fuming_ . "You have that I-got-to-pee look on your face." A pause, Tobio can _feel_ Tsukishima reconsidering. "No wait. It's the constipated look."

But for all of his teasing and mocking, Tobio realises Tsukishima's tormenting is different than Oikawa-san's. Iwaizumi-san once told him that Oikawa 'had hit his head hard when he was a baby, which is why he has issues'. But if by 'issues' Iwaizumi-san meant sadism and torture, and probably mind reading and other dark witchcrafts, Tobio didn't know.

All he knows is that when Tsukishima laughs at him, he doesn't make him feel that bad. Not at all. The way Tsukishima laughs at him doesn't really carry anything bad like jealousy and hate, the way Oikawa-san's laugh does. And Tobio wonders if this is Tsukishima's way of friendship. Not that Tobio is well versed in that. In all honesty, he fails miserably at it, and he knows it.

Tsukishima has always seemed so distant. So far away from Tobio's reach. And not only at volleyball, but at studying and having that calm and collected look on his face when Tobio's emotions are always showing in his.

Hinata and Yamaguchi emerge from the shop then. But Tsukishima's stare is still on Tobio. He notices, belatedly, that Tsukishima has freckles, too. They're almost imperceptible and not as many as Yamaguchi's, and maybe Tsukishima got them from being out in the sun for too long. Maybe they'll disappear once the weather decides to change once and for all.

"What took you so long, dumbass Hinata?" He scoffs, turns his face away from Tsukishima for fear of doing something stupid. Like touch it or something. It had just looked so smooth, that's all.

"Ah, Kageyama-kun is always so mean and awful," Hinata says, he has an ice cream cone on one hand and a nikuman on the other.

"Sorry," Yamaguchi chimes in. "It was my fault. I couldn't decide what to buy."

"You don't have to apologise to him." Tsukishima begins walking towards home. Yamaguchi quickly catches up to him and Tobio hears a soft, "Sorry, Tsukki."

Hinata sticks his tongue out at him and runs after Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. Tobio's feet are still glued to the floor. As if they were reluctant to leave this place. This new feeling nesting in his chest.

"Oi, rectangular!" Tsukishima's voice is distant, but Tobio hears it loud and clear. "You coming?"

As Tobio quickens his pace to reach the others, he feels the wind on his face. It smells faintly of autumn. Tobio looks up and watches the clouds move gently to reveal the moon.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from Vladimir Nabokov's A Letter That Never Reached Russia.


End file.
